


Evil

by bluewhistlingthrush



Category: Descendants (Disney Movies)
Genre: Everyone else is gray-ish, Evil Mal (Disney), Gen, Gift, If Mal chose evil, Not totally good, What are all those disney princesses anyway?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-22
Updated: 2021-02-22
Packaged: 2021-03-12 09:40:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,364
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29632695
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bluewhistlingthrush/pseuds/bluewhistlingthrush
Summary: What if, in her moment of reckoning, Mal chose wrong? What if Mal chose evil?
Relationships: Evie & Jay & Mal & Carlos de Vil, Jane & Li Lonnie, Uma & Uma's Crew (Disney)
Comments: 4
Kudos: 9





	Evil

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Carol_Blue](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Carol_Blue/gifts).



> Gifted to Carol_Blue. Happy Birthday!

That wand is power.

She can feel it as she fingers the designs, as she twirls the thing in the air. She can feel it in the way she feels invincible, strong, _powerful­_ \- the way the wand fits in her hand like it was made for it.

This is it. This is her moment of reckoning.

It’s all so trivial now- the crowning, the goodness, the love potion, the prince… Ben. Oh, gods, _Ben._

“Stand back, Ben,” she orders. “Stand back.”

“This isn’t you!” he shouts. The idiot. The stupid, lovestruck idiot. “Mal, please-“

“Stand. Back.” She points the wand at him, trying to hide the tremor in her voice. “Prince Ben, stand back or I will make you.”

“I told you so!” Audrey’s whiny voice is sickening, stupid, irritating- and nagging, but she doesn’t care. Mal whirls around, points the wand at her, and she doesn’t think- or rather, she thinks without thinking, and she _wishes,_ and Audrey collapses to the ground, unmoving.

Dead.

Silence deafens the hall. Mal gasps, her eyes filling with irrational tears, and then someone shoves her to the ground, and the wand slips out of her hand, and-

Oh, no.

Maleficent stands tall, proud and victorious. The wand clutched in her left hand, her scepter in the right.

At once, all coherent thought slips out of Mal’s head. This- this _woman_ , she’s a challenger, a hurdle, an obstacle.

She’s in the way of power. _Mal’s_ power.

“My daughter,” starts the witch, falseness oozing out of her. “My evil, murderous-“

Murderous she sure is. “Essence of nightshade, belladona shake-“ Maleficent looks up, confusion turning to horror- “send her to sleep, never to wake.”

Maleficent topples. Falls down and the wand bounces, slides to a stop at Mal’s feet.

“Mal,” Ben whispers, inching slowly closer to her. “Mal, don’t-“

She picks up the wand. “Scepter!”

It flies into her left hand, and Mal stands, powerful.

As if the world belongs to her.

Maybe it does.

…

Auradon changes.

Mal marries the prince, but all know it’s just a sham. Just a way to take a hostage without calling him a hostage.

Carlos watches.

She promised him all the animal pelts he wants. She promised him Jay his choice of stolen goods, and she promised Evie the most beautifully designed rooms in the whole place.

Carlos only nodded, and then smuggled Dude away and into the woods.

His mom thinks he’s gone soft. He doesn’t know. Maybe he has. He’s still deadly afraid of animals… but he loves Dude. And that isn’t changing, evil or good.

Jay joins him at lacrosse today. They play, and some Auradon kids play too, but he’d be a fool not to notice the glares and sullen and hostile looks thrown at them, and he can’t play for long, so he heads into the forest and sits in a tree, thinking.

He’s always thinking, he thinks. Never doing. Passive.

…

Evie’s always been the sidekick.

Even when they were kids, it was always Mal who did the big thing, Mal who lead, Mal who took the plunge.

Evie followed.

And she follows Mal now, when she takes over Auradon and starts ruling. When she frees all the villains from the Isle.

She’s always been on ‘Team Mal’, even as a kid. Mal decided, Evie agreed. Mal spoke, Evie seconded. Mal argued, Evie supported.

She supports Mal now, when she says wants to make the world a better place, to join villain and hero. When she wants to unite the magical, once and for all.

But Evie sees the gleam in her eye, the hunger for power. Evie sees Mal prefer evil over good, villain over hero.

Evie knows she thinks it’s fair. Sometimes, she thinks it’s fair too- but Mulan’s daughter calling Harry Hook an idiot isn’t reason enough to ban her from the tourney, Evie knows that much. ( _Hypocrite_ , she thinks, a pang in her heart, _you call him an idiot all the time._ ) _Killing, murdering_ Audrey for _speaking out_ wasn’t fair. Killing Maleficent was, maybe- but throwing protesters in prison, ending rebellions in their cribs, not caring, past the point of no return, not listening, _ruling_ …

Evie always knew Mal the leader. The ruler, the icon of evil. Evie always knew she was the best.

But now, seeing Mal become the dictator she’s always resented, Evie doubts.

…

A month after Mal takes the throne, Auradon is at peace. Mal puts down all the _heroes_ and everywhere, there are villains in charge- _loyal_ villains, and she thinks she’s finally won, and she’s happy, and she celebrates with her friends. But Evie looks sad and Carlos isn’t speaking much and even Jay looks shifty, and she can tell something’s wrong with them.

In truth, sometimes she thinks there’s something wrong with _her._ Sometimes, she feels like she chose wrong. But then she holds that scepter and holds the wand and looks down at her city, and she’s powerful again, and sure she did the right thing.

She says so to them all.

They’re silent. But then Evie nods her head, smiling, though it seems forced. And Mal relaxes.

…

Jay is practicing when he hears them.

For some time, his sword fighting provides enough distraction to not notice. It’s his escape now- he vents his frustration on the poor dummy, hitting it, getting his moves right. But then a voice breaks through his focus, and he pauses, listening.

“Not anymore,” someone says, her voice fierce. _Lonnie._ “It’s too much now.”

“You’re right.” The second one’s some other princess, one he doesn’t know yet. “We’ve got to do something.”

“We need the VKs,” Lonnie says. “Some of them, at least. We’ve got no chance at the queen otherwise. She’s got them guarding her all around.”

Jay’s sword clangs to the ground. The voices stop talking, and feet shuffle around. He sneaks out through the back door, and sits down under a tree, ruffled.

Those people… _Lonnie_ … they spoke of treason. The wanted to… do something, to Mal. To capture her, maybe. To take the crown.

He should tell her. She could be in danger. No, she most definitely _was_ in danger.

 _But that was Lonnie._ The same Lonnie who kept beating him at fighting. Who taught him the best tricks with his sword. Who almost genuinely seemed to _like_ him.

But he’s known Mal longer. A lot longer. His loyalty is to her, first and foremost.

“What’s up?” says a voice. Mal sits down next to him, smiling. The crown shining on her head. “Anything wrong?”

Jay looks into her eyes. “Nothing,” he says casually. “Nothing at all.”

…

Jane spends her time locked up in a cell, sobbing. It’s her fault, she tells herself, all her fault. If she hadn’t grabbed that wand…

Five weeks after her arrest, Lonnie slips into her room. Her hair is back to normal, and she holds a sword- a real sword, not a tourney sword. For a moment, Jane thinks she’s here to kill her, but she’s just here to talk.

_Treason._

Once, the thought would have scared her to death. But she knows enough to know that this can’t continue.

“Yes,” she whispers. “Yes, I’m in.”

Lonnie grins. “Good. Now just hold on for some time. We’ll get you out of here.”

…

_Captain_

_Same motive. More resources._

_Dead man’s house. Witching hour. Leave the crew._

_-Swordsman._

Uma folds the note in half. She doesn’t know what to think. She’s hated Mal her whole life, but she wanted out of the Isle. She hates the heroes, but… but while Mal got ruthless power from Hades, Uma got the fairness. The sense of justice. And what’s happening now isn’t just, not at all.

So she pens a ‘yes’ and slips it under Lonnie’s door, and tells Harry and Gil to watch out if she doesn’t come back. The note doesn’t scream treachery, and it doesn’t scream ‘Mal’ either- for all the villain that girl thinks she is, she can barely code and isn’t much of a spy _or_ an apprehender.

And she almost trusts the other girl. Mulan’s daughter may not have been her first choice in heroes, but she’s better than most.

The midnight meeting is just her, Lonnie, and Rapunzel’s daughter, who has hair almost as long as her mother’s. They’re all surprisingly agreeable, and it turns out they _don’t_ have more resources, but they do have a better position.

The plan is simple, but very likely to succeed. Uma gives her consent, and her pirates. She has her conditions, of course. So do Lonnie and Raza. They haggle, but they come to an agreement.

Two days later, three pirates sneak into the castle, and two heroes into the prison cells. By midnight, Fairy Godmother’s daughter is free, and Uma is perched in a secret passageway above Mal’s room. The queen is sleeping, a hand on her scepter. The wand is almost unattended.

All of a sudden, the western tower goes up in flame. Uma allows herself a smile, and internally congratulates Harry and Gil as a siren blares, and Mal wakes up, grabs the scepter, and runs out the door.

Uma waits for a minute, then jumps down and grabs the wand. She knows it won’t work half as well for her as it did for Mal- her magic is _water_ , and there’s no water anywhere.

But it’s a weapon, and even if it doesn’t work at all, she can swing it and knock someone out, at least.

The door flies open. Uma startles, then points the wand at- no.

Mal is back. Almost too soon- almost as if she _knew._ Almost-

 _Harry and Gil,_ she thinks. _Shit. Or maybe it’s just Lonnie._

She raises the stupid wand. “How did you know?” she asks, hoping to buy time. “We were discreet.”

“Did you expect me not to charm my room? I _knew_ , Uma. I knew it was going to be you.”

Uma backs away, almost at the window. “You won’t kill me today.”

Mal shakes her head. “No. I won’t. You’ll make for a useful bargaining chip, though, if your pirates manage to escape Jay and Carlos.”

Uma smiles. “Good. I’d hate to die so early.” And she throws the wand out of the broken window.

Mal roars with rage. “You- bind her!” she cries.

Ropes encircle her arms and legs- magic ropes. She can feel them burning into her skin.

Mal shakes her head. She can’t summon the wand, at least, and Uma takes comfort in that fact. “Have you forgotten what we stood for, sister? We, the villains?”

For a moment, Uma falters. The burning makes her delirious. But then she looks into Mal’s eyes, and she smiles.

“No,” she says, and she stops struggling. It hurts less that way. “No, you have.”

…

Evie runs to Mal’s room. Her friend is safe, but-

“What is this?” she whispers. “What- Uma?”

Mal barely glances at her. “Yes. She threw the wand out of the window, Evie. And I can’t summon it. _Or_ find it.”

…

Lonnie gets there in time. ‘Wand out of the window’ was _not_ a part of their plan, but she grabs it anyway and throws it to Jane. As long as a wand is with one of it’s blood, it stays. And as… lame as Jane might be, she _is_ the Fairy Godmother’s daughters.

Now for the hard part. Jane alone won’t be enough, but maybe with help…

From the tower, someone screams. Lonnie winces- a charm on the room wasn’t what she’d suspected, and now Uma was paying for that.

She takes Jane’s hand. “Get us into the tower,” she instructs.

The other girl nods, takes a breath, and mutters the command.

…

Jay stops at the burning tower. “No,” he says. “Not doing this.”

Carlos glances at him. It’s been too long for him to not understand.

“They’re not our enemies.”

Carlos sighs. “No, we’re theirs. But I’m not doing it either.”

Jay raises an eyebrow. “Outright rebellion? Against _Mal_? You?”

Carlos shrugs, as though he’s casual. As though it doesn’t hurt. “She hasn’t been Mal in a while.”

…

“Mal, what did you do to her?” Evie is panicking. Where’s Mal? The real, compassionate Mal? The one who’d started to develop feelings?

She’s right there, Evie realizes. Only, it’s not her. She’s changed.

…

Mal doesn’t understand.

She’s right, isn’t she? Uma tried to steal the wand. Uma is paying.

“What did you do to?” she keeps repeating. “Why?”

_If you were in my place, won’t you have done the same?_

…

In all her life, Jane had never been this terrified.

Mal and Evie. Mal and Evie. How can she fight Mal and Evie?

Mal whirls around, her scepter held tight. Lonnie tackles Evie to the ground, deliberately not using her sword.

Jane yells out a spell. Mal blocks it effectively, and the counterspell drives Jane to her knees. She can’t win, she thinks despairing. This is _Mal._

She tries. Of course. She tries every spell she’s ever heard her mother cast.

But Mal is too powerful. By the end, Jane is on her knees, exhausted.

Then Mal turns to Lonnie, and binds her, same as Uma.

“Evie,” she whispers.

…

Jay sprints back to the Mal’s tower. He might have spared Uma’s lackeys imprisonment, but he wasn’t going to risk his hide on a rescue of they were trapped.

“What do we do now?” Carlos asks. “How do we explain everything?”

“We don’t,” Jay says, stopping. He realizes what’s going on in there. “We wait.”

…

“Evie,” Mal whispers, running towards her friend. She’s got a bloody lip, nothing more, but it makes her want to kill that traitor princess a hundred times over. “Evie, I’ll kill her for you.”

“No,” says Evie, her voice sad, and a tear slipping out of her eye. “No, Mal, you won’t. I’m sorry.”

“Evie, what-“

She barely even sees the dagger before it’s in her. Mal falls, her scepter slipping out of her grip. Blood flowing out of her stomach.

“Why?” she chokes, betrayal hurting more than pain. “Why, Evie?”

“I’m sorry,” whispers her friend. Through blurred vision, Mal thinks she sees tears clouding her eyes. “I’m sorry.”

The world goes black.


End file.
